Organizations relationships - Marketing Strategy

The saying ‘no man is an island’ could easily be adapted to ‘no business is an island’! No organization can exist in isolation. All organizations depend on establishing and developing relationships. In short,they must develop relationships with other organizations (suppliers,distributors, etc.) and, even more critically, with customers. Indeed, this latter relationship provides the fundamental basis of all marketing activity.

Alliances, joint ventures and other co-operative strategies are now widely recognized as effective strategic solutions to the challenges of the commercial world. Many commentators predict that the future of many organizations depends on their ability to successfully enter, and manage,collaborative ventures. The coming decade will be one of strategic collaboration.
Marketers readily acknowledge the importance of building relationships with customers. We have seen the emphasis move from transaction marketing (focusing on single sales) to relationship marketing (focusing on customer retention and building meaningful customer relationships).

When considering inter-organizational relationships, or relationships with customers, increasingly there are moves away from conflict and towards collaborative-based strategies and philosophies. Here, we examine the role of alliances within marketing strategy and principles of relationship marketing.